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Friday, May 29, 2015

Surprise! Chaos Rings III is Localized, Available Today!

It was almost a year ago that we got our first look at Chaos Rings III, the latest in Square Enix's most popular series of smartphone games, and a pleasant surprise for everyone circulating rumors that the third numbered entry in the series would be reduced to a social card battling game. Considering every previous Chaos Rings game was localized (with the exception of voiceovers) the expectation was that Chaos Rings III would be as well, however as the months went by it gradually slipped into the background and called into question whether a localization effort existed at all.

Well, now we know, because out of the blue the game has appeared on the US iTunes App Store and Google Play, the latter of which bearing one of its first ESRB ratings. For the curious: Chaos Rings III was awarded a T for Teen. It also bears a whopping 2.3GB download size and a typical Square Enix premium price tag of $19.99. While that sort of figure often turns off smartphone and tablet crowds used to $0.99 throwaway apps, in this case we're talking about a real, 30-hour game in a series with a history of being worth every penny.

Playstation Vita Japanese trailer

For its original Japanese release back in October, Chaos Rings III also hit the Playstation Vita as part of a package containing the entire series. Currently Square Enix has not announced whether the Vita package will also be localized, however an official patch was released for the Vita versions of Chaos Rings I, II and Omega late last year bringing an English text option to Japanese players, so with the English version of Chaos Rings III now on smartphones it seems there is little work left to be done should a Vita localization be in the works.

As with Chaos Rings II, Chaos Rings III is more or less a standalone story, meaning the other games in the series are not strictly prerequisites to enjoy this one, though it does acknowledge its past for those with prior series knowledge. Contrary to the darker tones of its predecessors, Chaos Rings III takes a more colorful, almost Kingdom Hearts-like approach to its universe, though the familiar gameplay that made the originals so enjoyable hasn't gone anywhere. The new entry also brings full 3D environments and platforming to the table for the first time, marking a big step up in production quality that could potentially indicate Square Enix intends to take Chaos Rings forward as one of their featured series.

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